Worst (W subway line)

The “W” subway line has consistently been graded to be the “worst” line in the New York City subway system. “Worst” is a slightly newer nickname for the train that comes so infrequently that it’s also been nicknamed “Whenever.”
   
 
W (New York City Subway Service)
The W Broadway Local is a rapid transit service of B Division of the New York City Subway. It is colored yellow on the route sign and on station signs and the subway map, as it is a service provided on the BMT Broadway Line through Midtown Manhattan.
 
The W runs weekdays only from 6:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. (6:00 to 21:50) as an entirely local service from Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard in Queens to Whitehall Street–South Ferry in Lower Manhattan. The first three trains, however, enter service at Gravesend–86th Street and the last three trains of the night continue in service to Kings Highway. These trips run local in Brooklyn. The service passes under the East River in the 60th Street Tunnel.
   
Gothamist.com
September 27, 2004
N Train Means No Luck
It’s bad enough that the N train gets a bad rap with its slow service (it’s the “Never” train, whereas the R is the “Rarely”...the W is “Whenever” and perhaps the Q is “Quixotic”), but this weekend has been no good.
     
Gothamist.com
February 8, 2006
W Is for Worst
And all along we thought W meant “Whenever Train”! The Straphanger Campaign released a survey of subway car announcements and found that the W train was the worst when it came to announcements, deteriorating having 69% adequate announcements in 2004 to only 58% last year.
     
Subway Blogger
July 23, 2007
1 Train is #1, W is the Worst in Straphanger Ratings
Well, the results are in from the 10th Straphangers Campaign Report.  The 1 train was rated the best overall line in the entire system (I catch a faint smell of bullsh*t), and the W train is tied for worst line with the C train.  No shock in either case on the losing end. 
 
New York (NY) Post
‘W’ - AS IN WORST SUBWAY AROUND
By PATRICK GALLAHUE Transit Reporter
Posted: 3:48 am
July 30, 2008
The W is the worst subway line in the system, a new report claims.
 
The lower Manhattan-to-Astoria local scored a weak 70 cents - out of a possible $2 - on a transit watchdog’s annual “State of the Subways” report card.
 
The Straphangers Campaign, using NYC Transit’s own data, rated the worthless W line well below average in cleanliness, frequency of breakdowns, regularity and clarity of announcements.
 
And perhaps riders avoiding the line led to its only positive mark in the report - 46 percent of passengers were able to sit down on the line during rush hour, compared with 43 percent average for the entire system.
 
“The W would have scored lower, except you can get a seat,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.